10 Times Wrestling Feuds Crossed Over Promotions
4. AJ Styles Vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura worked a phenomenal match at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10 - a squelching banger worked at a face-melting pace drenched in unique, tweener psychology - a match so phenomenal that WWE cheekily (or lazily) drew on its legend to promote one of the biggest matches at WrestleMania.
They spruced it up with some b*llocks about Styles "emotion" getting in his way, but stripped of that, the messaging was clear: We're calling it the 'Dream Match' because we know you wanted the sequel the second we brought them in at the same time.
This match was the pure wrestling treat on a sports entertainment bonanza of a card, and WWE winked at us geeks to sell it. Turns out that the sports entertainment was significantly better than the wrestling on the night: one performer made us believe that a genuine, instant death blow was imminent, and her name was Ronda Rousey.
Styles and Nakamura meanwhile worked a defiantly WWE pace, the lack of graduating intensity about which lost a crowd that was already tiring. From there, this degenerated into a series of Objectively Good matches nobody will ever watch again marred by a gap in psychology anybody with a pair of testicles pointed out.
The WWE writing staff didn't get it, funnily enough.